The Holy Grail of Vintage toy collecting

I have always wanted to know this so I decided to ask the experts. My question is what is the one toy that vintage robot collectors believe is the most valuable and most rare. I mean in every kind of collecting there is one card or model train that everyone agrees is the item to have. I know there are alot of different types of vintage collectors with different views and tastes but there has to be one toy that everyone agrees is the ultimate vintage toy robot. Plus how much would it be worth if it was in mint condition like it came straight from the factory. My guess is that it would be some kind of tin robot made after the second world war and be worth a couple grand.

At the moment holy grails are no more. vintage toy collecting is dead. Everyone has what he wants. Many are in the process of selling everything (I know of many for real). And there are no new collectors. So the end has come.

Well,
as far as diecast goes, there are still quite a few "Holy Grail" type toys, at least as far as I'm concerned! The DX Tetsjuin 28 which commands what? 3000-7000.00 dollars? A full ton o' blue diecast love. I get the impression though, that although somewhat uncommon it is demand for the toy that makes it so unobtainable.
Those Bullmark /Clover? gift sets for Mechander Robo et al., are also up there in the high end zone. Many of them rank up in the thousands of dollars. I've never actually charted them out-so I don't know how much or how hard to find they are.
The early Popy Mazinger Z's are also pretty rare/pricey and command a comparable 4 figure price range. Although I'm sure that varies with condition and demand.

There probably are more hard-to-come by toys but I'm not sure what those would be..
Chris

It all boils down to how you define "holy grail." If you mean a toy that's simply too expensive for you to afford, there are probably hundreds of "grails" out there.

But if you define it as a piece that's so honest-to-god rare and difficult to find that there may only be one or two in existence, the Jumbo "Kikaiju" Garada K7 is pretty much the poster child -- with regards to '70s character toys, at any rate. For years, nobody even had so much as a photograph of the thing. Tom Franck of Cool Japanese Toys devoted years to trying to (unsuccessfully) track one down. This one, on display in the Bandai Museum in Japan, is only the third confirmed sighting of a Garada and the only specimen I've ever seen with my own eyes.

But if you're talking out of any toy produced in Japan between WWII and today, I'm sure there are tin robots out there that trump even the Garada in terms of rarity and potential sale price. But that has as much to do with the deep pockets of the older demographic that collects them as it does with "value," rarity, and overall demand.

Thanks for the info guys, I just wanted to get a better grasp of what was out there. I guess when it comes to robots a Japanese made one would be the most wanted. Are there any toy robots made in North America that would be considered special? Or is North American treasures just basically first year Barbies and prototype 12" G.I Joes.

The only things I consider to be "Holy Grail"s are those things that I have yet to find. Like the Holy Grail itself, the cup that Jesus used in at the Last Supper, that the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur's Court had quested for but never found; I consider the same thing with those items I have never been able to find but had heard existence of. Bumblejumper was one such item, but now I have actually seen many on the net (And handled one through my trading), so it is no longer considered to be a Holy Grail to me. The only Holy Grails in my search right now are from the Tonka Gobots line: The Tan and Orange Nemesis Power Warrior Tank, which seems to only exist in the Catalog picture. And the Gobotron Fortress, which someone has Claimed to have seen, but never offered photographic Proof of, which also has Loomed in the shadows of the aformentioned Gobots Catalog for years, until I finally found a better picture of it on the back of a Box I found. But I have never found actual Proof of its Post Retailer-shelf Existence. I even tried to email the Current owners of the Tonka Corporation for answers to it, but they didn't know anything... So I am starting to disbelieve in it's existence.

Actually folks, what is 'dead' (for the moment) is the tyrannous spell of the dealers and their loopy, exorbitant prices; killed by the ready availability of both vintage and new toys as offered up by the very medium with which I am presently taunting Chris.

One is no longer forced to finance another's lifestyle with the purchase of a single vintage item and the speculators -soulless, heartless fools who see only the flash of coinage in their mind's eye as they accumulate piles of vinyl and diecast Japanese gems- are choking, choking, choking.

Hush my child, it is but their bitter death-rattle you hear. Their cold, stiffening fingers losing the grip on their precious monopoly (and there was much rejoicing).

Near as I can tell, more people than ever are buying robots, now. 'Holy Grails' are numerous as more and more discover this wonderful, slowly opening world; admittedly still an expensive, and thus questionable, hobby -but more affordable each day!

I just won a Gan Gara Gan Chan, myself. One more 'grail', once considered out of my grasp, checked off. = )

Everyone's idea of a "Holy Grail" is different. Some may be based on price alone while others are based on rarity. Point being it is different for everyone. Its all semantics anyway. What is a holy grail and what isn't? We all answer differently....call it "Holy-toy-I-really-really-want-and-can't-find-and/or-afford" it doesn't matter....whatever you want to call your Holy Grail of Toy collecting, go ahead. Like our collections themselves, they don't have to hold anyones approval except your own.

I just bought 2 clover Gundam robots from an Italian seller and it was a very smooth transaction.

But he's half Canadian. Maybe that explains it...

Of course people are still buying robots. Buyers in general are just smarter now that we don't go for the crazy prices some seller are asking for.

I am 33 short of completing my Popy GA collection, 32 more to go for PA series, then there are Bullmark, Clover, Takatoku, Ark and Yonezawa, oh Eidai too... Looks like I'll be buying for a LONG time....